Media Moves

Tom Florio

Former Condé Nast senior vice president and publishing director Tom Florio is getting back into the magazine business by acquiring pop culture title PAPER Magazine. Together with XRM Media and PAPER CCO Drew Elliott, Florio has formed ENTech Media Group, which has signed an agreement to purchase the magazine from PAPER Communications co-founders Kim Hastreiter and David Hershkovits. Plans are for the magazine to scale down its print presence while beefing up its digital offerings. "We will build on their digital and native content, social architecture and video,” said Florio. “In 2018, the magazine will go quarterly with an increased distribution in bookstores and single copies." PAPER isn’t exactly a stranger to incorporating digital communications into its game plan, however. In 2014, the magazine debuted its “Break The Internet” issue with a cover shot of a scantily clad Kim Kardshian that generated more than 70 million monthly unique visitors to Papermag.com

Jarl Mohn

The sexual harassment scandal at NPR that provoked the resignation of the radio network’s former head of news, Michael Orsekes, may be having some subsidiary effects. In a letter to NPR staff sent out on Tuesday, CEO Jarl Mohn announced that he would be taking a medical leave of at least a month to address a “dangerous level” of hypertension. He suffered a ruptured aorta in March. Mohn has come under fire for what some see as foot-dragging in response to the charges brought against Oreskes. “In retrospect,” he said in the letter, “I did not see the bigger pattern of poor judgment and unacceptable behavior.” In addition to the harassment complaints, that behavior included $1800 in invalid expenses, for which Mohn said Oreskes has reimbursed NPR. While Mohn is out on medical leave, NPR COO Loren Mayor will be filling in for him.

Serena Williams

Oath—the digital arm of Verizon that includes AOL, Yahoo! and the Huffington Post—has named Serena Williams the founding chairman of its board of advisors. Williams will lead a celebrity-studded group that includes Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, fashion designer Zac Posen and recording artists Chuck D and Ciara. The board of advisors will share the expertise they have gained from building their own brands with Oath leadership, as well as having access to the brands that operate under the Oath umbrella. They will also work with Oath’s philanthropic and social impact arm, Oath for Good, providing financial and volunteer contributions to the cause of their choice. Oath CEO Tim Armstrong says that the board “represents the leadership, creativity, work ethic, and philanthropy we aspire to as a company and they will help us make Oath a company unlike any other.”